Our Earthen Vessel & God's Holy Spirit
“But
we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us”
(II Corinthians 4:7). We are just an old clay pot and; yet,
we are daily involved with eternal truths and divine
matters. It hardly seems fair for such lowliness to be so
responsible for such blessedness. The Adam man is born in
sin and shaped by darkness; yet, the call of God never
leaves him alone. A person in their sins cannot find rest
because of that something inside that bids their attention.
A spark of God’s breath inside the human spirit is searching
for its divine maker.
It does not matter how many
years a person has served the Lord. They must never forget
the truth of our “earthen vessel.” Apostle Paul - years into
his ministry - reminds the Corinthians,
“For who maketh thee to differ from
another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now
if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou
hadst not received it?” (I Corinthians 4:7). All we
shall ever know or possess this side of the Resurrection
must be viewed as the works of grace and held in humble
submission. Haughtiness or self-importance will land you on
the heap of destruction. You are a vessel in which He seeks
to reveal Himself.
It’s amazing how much our
eternal God cares about this old pot of clay. It was His
creation and it was perfect in the day of its beginning. A
devious design by an enemy of God was able to deceive this
matchless creation. The result was a cowardly couple hiding
in the undergrowth. Four thousand years and many pains
later, a Son was born to reclaim the earthen vessel where so
much damage had been experienced. Jesus did not come just to
redeem the soul; He also came to redeem the body. To the
church in the Book of Romans, the Spirit said,
“But if the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal
bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans
8:11).
Again, we read,
“Now the body is not for
fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body”
(I Corinthians 6:13b). Notice that the Spirit declared these
matchless words, “The Lord for the
body.” In this same great chapter the Spirit
continues to speak, “What? know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is
in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For
ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God's” (I
Corinthians 6:19). Such truth is overwhelming to my heart.
Our “earthen vessel” is the
dwelling place of the very Spirit of Christ and His Father.
We are the Temple of God.
Great sermons and great Bible
lessons have very little power until the mouth-piece is
touched by this Spirit. Our Lord and Savior Himself declare
the helplessness of flesh. “It is
the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are
life” (John 6:63). The Son of God emphatically told
the early church to wait for this anointing that would give
power to their message. “And,
behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry
ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power
from on high” (Luke 24:49).
This is the great challenge to our present church world. We
are the “Temple of The Holy Ghost” and our God is desirous
of revealing Himself in us. We can actually live with a
conscious presence of the Holy Spirit revealing Christ to
ourselves and others. The very word “Temple” in the
Scripture means “a place of God’s revelation.” The
Tabernacle in the wilderness and the Temple in Jerusalem
were glorious places of God’s presence. The New Testament
covenant exceeds that glory as the literal exceeds the
shadow. “But if the ministration of
death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that
the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face
of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was
to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the
Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of
condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of
rig hteousness exceed in glory” (II Corinthians
3:7-9).
Humanistic self-esteem has
robbed our generation of the great consecration of our
helpless flesh to the mighty Christ. The flesh -- when
Biblically understood -- is far superior to flesh that is
controlled by the Adam nature. Jesus Christ came to liberate
the unconverted and lift them into the family of the
redeemed. We are a temple created for God even when sin is
still our master. That is the cause of great stress that
floods the unredeemed world. “But
the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest,
whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith
my God, to the wicked” (Isaiah 57:20).
Only in my old age, have I
come to know the exceeding joy of abiding in Christ day and
night. My body is not mine to possess in the pleasures’ of
this flesh life. Sure, there are wonderful joys of family,
great meals together with friends, and the pleasure of a
good book. All of this is multiplied when Jesus Christ rules
our life in absolute peace and the joy of the Holy Ghost.
“For the kingdom of God is not meat
and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost” (Romans 14:17).
A Spirit-filled temple is a joy in the church, in the home,
and everywhere that temple ventures in their daily duties.
Love lives on such a face, the hands are ready servants to
all, the lips carry words that encourage and give hope to
listeners. The community, where this temple is active, takes
note of such beautiful activities and expressions. Soon,
this man or woman is known as a prayer warrior that gets
results. When this saint transfers to the eternal abode,
they are remembered as a light that shone in the night.
